Nintendo today announced first-week sales of 400,000 Wii U systems in North America, falling short of the mark set by the first Wii, but surpassing early sales of previous high-definition systems.

American corporate president Reggie Fils-Aime told CNet sales of the new system have been limited only by Nintendo's ability to get product to stores. "Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves, but as soon as product hits retail, they're selling out immediately," Fils-Aime said, gelling with reports from retailers like GameStop that explicitly noted in Black Friday ads that they had no hardware stock to sell.

The original Wii sold over 600,000 units in the Americas in the eight days following its November 2006 launch, which also overlapped with Black Friday. Indeed, the Wii was nearly impossible to find on store shelves for months following launch, selling millions of systems in that time.

According to industry tracker NPD, the Xbox 360 sold 326,000 units in its first two weeks on sale in North America in 2005. The PlayStation 3 sold 197,000 in the last two weeks of November 2006, after launching at prices starting at $500.

Going back further, the PlayStation 2 sold through more than 500,000 units in its first day on sale in North America, Sony said at the time, becoming the dominant console of its generation. Sega's Dreamcast, on the other hand, sold 372,000 units in its first four days before quickly tapering off and ceasing production months later.

The Wii U sales contributed to over 1.2 million units of Nintendo hardware sold for the Thanksgiving week, including 300,000 Wii systems, 275,000 units of the original Nintendo DS line, and 250,000 3DS systems. The 3DS has now sold 6 million units worldwide, about 1 million more than the original DS had sold at the same point in its life cycle.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

110 Reader Comments

Well, good for them. Regardless of the total, selling your entire supply, to me, indicates an early success. As long as they can keep it up through the season, I'd say they'll be in a good place come the end of the year...

Early Friday morning, ye randome Toys R Us still had some Wii 32GB units. No idea if they sold that day or not. The Base unit was all sold out though. We were going to buy it but decided on a trampoline instead. The kids need to get out more...

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

I think Mario is a pretty strong flagship title. How it will fare against the next gen Xbox and PS is more difficult to say, but having a decent head start over them should help.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

It's no more gimmicky than the DS, DSi, and 3DS second screen and those have sold phenomenally well.

And, yes, Mario is a flagship title. 26m copies of New Super Mario Bros sold on the 'classic' Wii, which dwarfs the 8.1m copies of Halo 3 sold, which was the XBox's flagship title.

Wait until you see Mario Kart on the Wii U; that sold 32m copies for the classic Wii.

If Mario is a flagship, then it's a galleon. They might want to upgrade to a new IP, say an ironclad. I love platformers, and Mario is the king of platformers, but I can only stomach so much of any IP before I develop an aversion to it. (I'm looking at you, Halo 4.)

Consoles at launch tend to sell well, if nothing else because scalpers will put them on eBay. It helps to launch at $300 as opposed to at $400 and $500 for the cheapest XBox 360 and PS3 models in their respective launches.

Full backwards compatibility also helps, and that there isn't any competition. Nintendo is the only company with a new console at the market, so there is no opportunity cost (buying a 360 means I can't afford the PS3 at launch or vice-versa).

That being said, I still believe the new Sony and Microsoft consoles will be much better products that what Nintendo is offering here.

If Mario is a flagship, then it's a galleon. They might want to upgrade to a new IP, something of an aircraft carrier. I love platformers, and Mario is the king of platformers, but I can only stomach so much of any IP before I develop an aversion to it. (I'm looking at you, Halo 4.)

Mario is a god-damn armada. Smash, Kart, and Sunshine on the GameCube, Nintendo's 'weak' last gen console, each sold 7.09m, 7m, and 5.5m copies each.

Mario is a god-damn armada. Smash, Kart, and Sunshine on the GameCube, Nintendo's 'weak' last gen console, each sold 7.09m, 7m, and 5.5m copies each.

Halo 2 and 3, in comparison, only hit 8m each.

Of course Mario sells well, and I understand why Nintendo would trot out that IP again as a platform lead--it's safe, and it's guaranteed to sell on brand power alone. It would just be nice to see them focusing on a newer IP, maybe Pikmin, rather than going the route of, "We made a new machine to play Mario on."

It's not selling out around here (SW Ontario). The local Wal-Mart had both base and deluxe editions in stock. With the Wii, they never made it onto the shelf. Then again, since Canada doesn't have the same level of Black Friday frenzy, the units might just be taking longer to sell.

Also, I seem to recall that the Wii, 360 and PS3 were supply limited when they came out. All three sold their initial shipments, and were unable to match demand for weeks (or months in the case of the Wii).

Of course Mario sells well, and I understand why Nintendo would trot out that IP again as a platform lead--it's safe, and it's guaranteed to sell on brand power alone. It would just be nice to see them focusing on a newer IP, maybe Pikmin, rather than going the route of, "We made a new machine to play Mario on."

Pikmin 3 is due by early 2013, which might help alleviate the software drought that typically follows a console's launch.

If Mario is a flagship, then it's a galleon. They might want to upgrade to a new IP, something of an aircraft carrier. I love platformers, and Mario is the king of platformers, but I can only stomach so much of any IP before I develop an aversion to it. (I'm looking at you, Halo 4.)

Mario is a god-damn armada. Smash, Kart, and Sunshine on the GameCube, Nintendo's 'weak' last gen console, each sold 7.09m, 7m, and 5.5m copies each.

I read a while back that more kids surveyed recognized Mario than recognized Mickey Mouse, who literally used to be the most recognizable character in the world.

I thought the NES and SNES were two of the best consoles of all time for the number of great games on those platforms, but the N64, Gamecube and Wii have all failed to match that standard. Each of those consoles primarily gathered dust in my house. And despite the fact that I don't want a Wii U today and hate the concept, I'll likely break down and buy one at some point to play the new Mario and Zelda titles.

However, I feel Zelda was a stronger launch title for the original Wii, and was the reason I picked the system up at launch.

I wont bother with the WiiU until a new WiiU only Zelda comes out most likely.

I disagree. I bought the Wii for Zelda, yes, but I thought it was weakest title of the series, and I also felt that Zelda showed off how crappy SD graphics were for the Wii; it actually made me like my Wii less.

Mario, on the other hand, is the Wii U's saving grace. The Wii U system is a disappointment...but there's Mario, so it was an easy buy.

It should be noted that Twilight Princess was a Gamecube game they re-released for the Wii and promised motion controlled sword fighting, which meant if you shook the Wiimote in any fashion, it was the same as pressing the attack button.

Therein lies a lot of problem with the Wii. It never lived on the promise of real motion-controlled gaming. Multi-platform games repeatedly just took "generic Wii-shaking" and used that to replace a button. It is annoying and pointless.

I'm glad to see the WiiU sold well on its opening weekend. Even though I have no plans to ever buy one, and personally think it's a silly console, I have always liked Nintendo and hope they stick around.

That being said, I started laughing when my girlfriend saw her first WiiU commercial last weekend and said: "that's it? That screen controller is their big selling point? How many people who buy a Nintendo don't have a second TV in the house? Why would that thing ever be necessary?". As she is somebody who doesn't know anything about the WiiU, I thought it was an interesting reaction to the commercial.

Sega's Dreamcast, on the other hand, sold 372,000 units in its first four days before quickly tapering off and ceasing production months later.

Do you mean years later? The Dreamcast wasn't discontinued until ~2001 with sales of about 10million units.

Poor Dreamcast, I played that thing a ton, Crazy Taxi was awesome, and at the time it was the only system we played sports games on. Burned too much good will with the Saturn, I think, and with the PS2 on the horizon it was just too much to weather.

Since all recent systems have been supply limited, the first week stats are pretty meaningless, PS2 seemed to have ample supply, but it also blew away all competitors in sales. I'm optimistic about what I've seen on the Wii U, I'll probably start hunting for one after Christmas.

Nintendo selling out its entire supply isn't exactly a huge achievement. They couldn't catch up to the demand for the Wii for over a year after its release, because they were just dribbling them month after month.

While that approach does insure that you don't oversupply the channels, it was really frustrating for people looking to buy a Wii that didn't want to pay a markup to the scalper who has a friend in the receiving department.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

This is a gamer response. PS2 had the worst specs of it's generation and the Gamecube had the best. How did that turn out? People buy software--the hardware is just the entry point. If good software is available (as defined by purchasers of the Wii U) then the Wii U will be a success. If owners of the system don't buy software or there isn't enough varied software to attract a critical mass, then it will fail. If it looks good on people's HD TV (it does) then specs don't matter. How many people can tell you what's inside their Xbox or PS3?

Nintendo selling out its entire supply isn't exactly a huge achievement. They couldn't catch up to the demand for the Wii for over a year after its release, because they were just dribbling them month after month.

While that approach does insure that you don't oversupply the channels, it was really frustrating for people looking to buy a Wii that didn't want to pay a markup to the scalper who has a friend in the receiving department.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

Yup. I hope the Wii U does well. I'd like to buy one, but am waiting to see what Microsoft and Sony do, prior to purchase.

That being said, I started laughing when my girlfriend saw her first WiiU commercial last weekend and said: "that's it? That screen controller is their big selling point? How many people who buy a Nintendo don't have a second TV in the house? Why would that thing ever be necessary?". As she is somebody who doesn't know anything about the WiiU, I thought it was an interesting reaction to the commercial.

I find statements like this humorous, why is Nintendo expected to offer wildly innovative features, while PS/XBox are just increasingly powerful copies of the previous gen? As a PC gamer I have a hard time understanding the value of the PS/Xbox, but the Wii was fun and different, and the Wii U might be less innovative, but they'd likely get me anyway because of their franchises.

I'm tired of the gimmicks to be honest, that includes all of the systems. Granted I like motion tracking and 3D and all that jazz, I just don't like how they have been thus far implemented and relied upon (in Nintendo's example at least). While I think Kinect is onto something for full body integration into games, it's just too useless right now. I haven't been a fan of any of the games released for it so far. Same goes for the original Wii, the only games I ended up liking on it were the nintendo sports games and zelda. I sold mine off about 2 months after I bought it.

The only thing I like about this gamepad for the Wii U is swapping to it when someone wants to watch tv, however I don't have that issue and it isnt worth it to me. I want to play a game with no hassle for as long as I can take it, and then chuck it back into it's corner, I don't want to manage charging controllers (my xbox controller I use for my pc lasts forever when I actually use it) or more peripherals than I can store in my room, lol.

TL;DR Quit doing gimmicks and make graphics and social gaming more effective. Give me a reason to buy a game on a console versus a PC.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

I think Mario is a pretty strong flagship title. How it will fare against the next gen Xbox and PS is more difficult to say, but having a decent head start over them should help.

It would have been stronger if Nintendo didn't screw up the saved games on that sucker. Basically, it does not matter what profile you are logged into, you are stuck with the extremely limited 3 games shared across all profiles.

A really .. bad design flaw.

As for the different units, Only two stores in town carried the Wii U, and they only carried the 8GB one. (Walmart & Fred Meyers)

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

I think Mario is a pretty strong flagship title. How it will fare against the next gen Xbox and PS is more difficult to say, but having a decent head start over them should help.

Don't get me wrong, I like Mario, but New Super Mario Bros U is largely the same game as New Super Mario Bros Wii. Fun for a playthrough, but it didn't take very long to beat and there wasn't a lot of replay value there. I don't know that it qualifies as a AAA launch title in today's world.

That's an issue that will be solved in time (they'll release Zelda eventually,) so I'll give Nintendo a pass on that. But their online presence definitely isn't as mature as Microsoft's or even Sony's, and hardware does matter to a point: at the end of the Wii's lifecycle, it received virtually no console ports because it simply couldn't run them. We don't know the hardware specs of the PS4 or X720, so we don't know how they compare to the WiiU, but if they're significantly higher then the WiiU could have a short lifespan. That's the risk of being first to market; especially without the massive price advantage that the Wii had.

Played with the Wii U over Thanksgiving with all manner of ages and we we had a blast. The kids, however were addicted. This is with Nintendo Land.

If everyone was like those immediately around me, this thing would have legs.

The numbers are promising. I think it's going to come down to a battle of the exclusive titles again which means PS and XBox are probably going to have a bit of a lull before the big ones come out despite a possible launch in 2013. I'm speculating that nothing amazing is coming in terms of new experiences from those two.

Don't get me wrong, I like Mario, but New Super Mario Bros U is largely the same game as New Super Mario Bros Wii. Fun for a playthrough, but it didn't take very long to beat and there wasn't a lot of replay value there. I don't know that it qualifies as a AAA launch title in today's world.

Why not? If Halo's 8m counts as a AAA title, why should NSMBU, given how NSMBW got 26m sales? The point is that there is huge pent up demand for a classic side scrolling Mario title. Nintendo has released 3 or 4 3D Mario games in the last decade for the Wii and GameCube and only one classic side scroller.

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That's an issue that will be solved in time (they'll release Zelda eventually,) so I'll give Nintendo a pass on that.

I think you're confusing your target market with the Wii-U's target market. The Wii only sold 9m copies of both Zelda games combined, while Mario sold over 100m titles.

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But their online presence definitely isn't as mature as Microsoft's or even Sony's, and hardware does matter to a point: at the end of the Wii's lifecycle, it received virtually no console ports because it simply couldn't run them.

I'm sure that will rear it's ugly head again in 4 years as the next PS or XBox gain steam.

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We don't know the hardware specs of the PS4 or X720, so we don't know how they compare to the WiiU, but if they're significantly higher then the WiiU could have a short lifespan. That's the risk of being first to market; especially without the massive price advantage that the Wii had.

What's wrong with having a short lifespan? Nintendo could release another Wii in 4 years if they need to if they happen to get a good number of games utilizing the touchscreen.

Poor Dreamcast, I played that thing a ton, Crazy Taxi was awesome, and at the time it was the only system we played sports games on. Burned too much good will with the Saturn, I think, and with the PS2 on the horizon it was just too much to weather.

The goodwill is a good point. Sega burned up all of young me's goodwill when I got a Sega CD which was crap from a hardware standpoint (constantly failed to work) and crap from a games standpoint. They later solidified that hate by releasing the 32x and the Saturn so close together - even back then I saw it as a complete money-grab and I refused to even look at future Sega hardware.

As others have said wait until the new Xbox and PS come out. A new console is going to sell better than two systems that have been out for many years.

Made a mistake with the Wii *a huge lack of good games beyond first party titles due to lack of third party support. Don't get me wrong there were good games on it but very few compared to the other two systems* and I will be watching before risking being burned twice.

I don't think anyone seriously doubted that the WiiU would sell out this holiday season. The real question marks with the WiiU are how it will fare against the next generation Xbox and Playstation given the specs that it has and Nintendo's lack of media presence outside gaming. The tabletscreen feels gimmicky, and the system doesn't have a real flagship title.

Yup. I hope the Wii U does well. I'd like to buy one, but am waiting to see what Microsoft and Sony do, prior to purchase.

Nintendo selling out its entire supply isn't exactly a huge achievement. They couldn't catch up to the demand for the Wii for over a year after its release, because they were just dribbling them month after month.

While that approach does insure that you don't oversupply the channels, it was really frustrating for people looking to buy a Wii that didn't want to pay a markup to the scalper who has a friend in the receiving department.

After mixed reaction from the media on the whole motion control and the fact that Gamecube ended up selling roughly 20 million lifetime units, Nintendo was cautious with the Wii supply chain. And because the Gamecube only sold 20 million in 5 years, they had no reason to believe there would be demand for 15 million Wii's in just year one. At the time, no one was surprised that Nintendo wasn't meeting demand; and no one seemed to know when demand would level off and how far it would drop at that point. That happens when a product is a bigger success than expected.